> There was no period in which it had super strong lockdowns or super excessive restrictions.
"America" is 300 million people and 50 separate states in a federal system. The reflexive urge to treat it as a single entity is central to the problem I'm discussing. On the more functional side, the lack of border controls between states in a federal system made tamping cases down to minimal levels a big challenge.
The entire world settled into an equilibrium of calibrating restrictions (both via policy and individual behavior) based on case numbers. In the US, national numbers drove much of this conversation, treating a continent-spanning nation as if it was epidemiologically equivalent to Belgium.
> There was no period in which it had super strong lockdowns or super excessive restrictions.
just a couple of examples that I'm personally familiar with:
- California was under a statewide stay-at-home order from March 2020 to January 2021 (by contrast, France lifted their lockdown from May to October)
- San Francisco public schools were closed for over a year, and much of the US has been extreme about school closures. UK schools have never entirely shut down, and across Europe schools have been dramatically more open than across the US.
You're not wrong that American restrictions have generally been lighter, but this elides the many individual pockets with unnecessary NPIs based on case rates in irrelevant parts of the country. Schools are the most dramatic example of this, but things like spring 2020 lockdowns based on a pandemic that was limited to the Northeast at the time set us up for the heavy resistance to restrictions we saw in many states when they were actually hit in the summer (helped along by El Presidente's abuse of the bully pulpit).
Not really. Attendance in person was about 15%, being limited to key workers' children who couldn't arrange other childcare, and children with special educational needs. Teachers focused on remote teaching, while in person learning was neglected. In person teaching resumed fully Sep 2020-Dec 2020, and was interrupted again Jan-Mar 2021.
"America" is 300 million people and 50 separate states in a federal system. The reflexive urge to treat it as a single entity is central to the problem I'm discussing. On the more functional side, the lack of border controls between states in a federal system made tamping cases down to minimal levels a big challenge.
The entire world settled into an equilibrium of calibrating restrictions (both via policy and individual behavior) based on case numbers. In the US, national numbers drove much of this conversation, treating a continent-spanning nation as if it was epidemiologically equivalent to Belgium.
> There was no period in which it had super strong lockdowns or super excessive restrictions.
just a couple of examples that I'm personally familiar with:
- California was under a statewide stay-at-home order from March 2020 to January 2021 (by contrast, France lifted their lockdown from May to October)
- San Francisco public schools were closed for over a year, and much of the US has been extreme about school closures. UK schools have never entirely shut down, and across Europe schools have been dramatically more open than across the US.
You're not wrong that American restrictions have generally been lighter, but this elides the many individual pockets with unnecessary NPIs based on case rates in irrelevant parts of the country. Schools are the most dramatic example of this, but things like spring 2020 lockdowns based on a pandemic that was limited to the Northeast at the time set us up for the heavy resistance to restrictions we saw in many states when they were actually hit in the summer (helped along by El Presidente's abuse of the bully pulpit).